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Voluntary meetings embrace president's emphasis on faith
By Judy Keen
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- President Bush talks openly and proudly about his active spiritual faith. In another, less well known sign of the religious devotion that permeates the administration, some White House staffers have been meeting weekly at hour-long prayer and Bible study sessions.
Bush aides organized the sessions before his inauguration. One group meets during the lunch hour on Tuesdays, another on Thursdays. Attendance is voluntary and, although the lessons are Christian in nature, non-Christians are welcome.
Typically, 25 to 50 of the 1,700 people who work in the White House complex -- department heads, secretaries and mail clerks --attend each session. They meet in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, an ornate building next to the White House that houses the offices of Vice President Cheney and other administration officials.
Federal workplace guidelines issued in 1997 permit religious activities but warn supervisors to ensure that employees do not feel coerced to participate in them.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says courts have not ruled that religious study in public buildings is inherently unconstitutional.
''If there's equal treatment among people who don't attend and there's no pressure, then, frankly, it doesn't violate the First Amendment,'' he says. ''We have not gotten a single complaint from anyone at the White House.''
Controversy erupted last year when The Washington Post reported that Attorney General John Ashcroft holds daily Bible studies at the Justice Department. Some staffers said they felt uncomfortable about those sessions because their boss led them and they felt pressure to attend.
The president doesn't attend the Bible study meetings. Nor does White House chief of staff Andy Card, whose wife, Kathleene, is a minister at a United Methodist church near Washington.
There have been similar Bible study classes in previous administrations, White House spokeswoman Anne Womack says. During his presidency, Jimmy Carter, a Baptist, sometimes taught adult Sunday school at Washington's First Baptist Church. Richard Nixon, a Quaker, invited evangelists to the White House to speak to staffers.
Last Thursday, author Bruce Wilkinson was the guest speaker at a White House Bible study. Wilkinson wrote The Prayer of Jabez, a best-selling book based on a character in the Bible.
Wilkinson spoke admiringly of Bush's faith at a breakfast at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, before his White House visit.
As the president copes with the war on terrorism, Wilkinson said, ''The Lord is in front of him.''
Bush starts every day on his knees in prayer. He reads the Bible each morning and studies a Bible lesson daily.
Religion has been central to his life since 1985, when a conversation with the Rev. Billy Graham prompted him to renew his faith. Bush has said that his religious beliefs helped him quit drinking when he turned 40.
He was raised an Episcopalian but became a Methodist when he got married and joined the church of his wife, Laura.
Religion infuses Bush's policies and speeches. The president has proposed allowing religious groups to compete for federal money to operate programs for the needy. That legislation has stalled in Congress.
Bush often thanks his audiences for praying for him and argues that there is a role for religious faith in government.
''Our governments must not fear faith,'' he said this month at Republican Party fundraiser in Baltimore. ''We must welcome faith in our society.''
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
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